WNWO-TV

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WNWO-TV
Toledo, Ohio
Branding	NBC 24
Slogan	Toledo's Weather Station
Channels	Digital: 49 (UHF)
Subchannels	(see article)
Owner	Barrington Broadcasting Company, LLC (Barrington Toledo License, LLC)
Founded	May 3, 1966
Call letters’ meaning	We're in North West Ohio
Former callsigns	WDHO-TV (1966-1986)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 24 (UHF, 1966-2009)
Former affiliations	independent (1966-1970) United Network (1967) ABC (1970-1995) The Tube (2006-2007)
Transmitter Power	59 kW (digital)
Height	409 m (digital)
Facility ID	73354
Transmitter Coordinates	41°40′3″N 83°21′22″W / 41.6675°N 83.35611°W / 41.6675; -83.35611
Website	www.nbc24.com/

WNWO-TV, digital channel 49 (virtual channel 24.1) is a television station in Toledo, Ohio and affiliated with the NBC-TV network. The stations serves Northwestern Ohio, Southeastern Michigan and can be viewed in Windsor, Ontario and Essex County over the air and on cable. Its transmitter is located in Oregon, Ohio.

[edit] History

Overmyer Broadcasting founded the station that would be known as WNWO-TV on the air on May 3, 1966 as WDHO-TV (for Daniel H. Overmyer). Logically, it should have signed on as Toledo's ABC affiliate, or signed on as a full-time NBC affiliate. However, the FCC had just required all-channel tuning two years earlier. As a result, even though Toledo was big enough to support three full network affiliates, ABC opted to retain its affiliation with affiliate WSPD-TV (now WTVG), and NBC opted to retain its secondary affiliations with ABC affiliate WSPD-TV and CBS affiliate WTOL.

Instead, WDHO signed on as the unlikely flagship of The Overmyer Network, very soon renamed The United Network (no relation to UPN), which began operations one year later, on May 1, 1967. The sole program on the United Network, The Las Vegas Show (starring comedian Bill Dana) was cancelled after being on the air for a month and the network closed down with it. WDHO then became Toledo's first independent station, carrying syndicated and local programming plus CBS, NBC and ABC shows turned down by WSPD-TV and WTOL-TV.

Finally, in 1970, WDHO persuaded ABC to move all its programming there. Channel 24's affiliation with ABC wasn't a successful one. Creditors threatened the station's existence several times, and even the trailer housing the station's business office was in danger of repossession. It didn't help that WXYZ-TV in Detroit was available over the air in much of the Toledo market, or that WEWS-TV in Cleveland and WPTA in Fort Wayne had Grade B signals in parts of the Toledo television market. Overmyer Broadcasting (which once also owned a chain of independent stations including KEMO in San Francisco, WATL in Atlanta and WPHL in Philadelphia) declared bankruptcy during the 1980s and the station was seized by the Bank of Boston (now Bank of America).

In 1986, the station was sold through a bankruptcy proceeding for $19.6 million to a local group, Toledo Television Investors, LTD. The new owners changed the station's call letters to WNWO-TV, the new call letters standing for North West Ohio, on June 1, 1986. In October 1994, Capital Cities Communications/ABC announced it would buy WTVG. Almost out of desperation, WNWO approached NBC, which was about to be evicted from WTVG. On October 28, 1995, WNWO became the new affiliate for NBC in Toledo.

WNWO-TV's logo from 1995, after the affiliation switch from ABC to NBC.

Ironically (for being unsolicited by WNWO), this network swap increased the value of WNWO as a television station, owing to the ratings of NBC relative to ABC in 1995. The station was soon sold to the Malrite Communications Group. Malrite invested heavily in its new property, reportedly spending (according to the station's present owner) $3 million to upgrade the station. A new studio and offices were built on the site of the former WDHO on Byrne Road in Toledo, expanding the facility by 10,000 ft². The station went from a newsroom of 8 people and one half-hour newscast a day to over 30 people and 3 hours of news a day. In 1997 the completely revamped newscast went on the air with anchors Dan Lovett and Lissa Guyton, Bill Spencer presenting the weather and Jim Tichy, the only hold over from the previous newscast, presenting sports. Despite a large ad campaign with the slogan "Building a better station for you", the newscast did not do well in the ratings. There was a lot of turnover on the anchor desk, and a number of personalities (including Jon Clark, Angela Atalla and Nora Murray) have left the station. The station has fallen into a distant last place behind Fox affiliate WUPW [1].

Again, WNWO is disadvantaged with higher rated NBC affiliates (WDIV in Detroit, WLIO in Lima, Ohio, WCMH-TV in Columbus and WKYC-TV in Cleveland) being available over the air in parts of the Toledo market at city-grade or Grade B signal strength, although out-of-market CBS and ABC affiliates are also available over-the-air in the same capacity, but WTOL and WSPD/WTVG's ratings have not suffered.

Malrite merged with Raycom Media in 1998. However, Raycom owned WUPW at the time and had to sell it to avoid breaking the FCC's ownership rules in effect at the time, which did not allow duopolies.

WNWO was once again put up for sale in 2005 after Raycom merged with The Liberty Corporation, which included WTOL. The sale was necessary because the FCC does not allow duopolies between two of the four largest stations in a single market. Raycom chose to keep WTOL, because of CBS' (and even more so WTOL's) higher ratings at the time.

On March 27, 2006, Raycom announced that Barrington Broadcasting will be acquiring 12 Raycom stations, including WNWO. The group deal was finalized on August 11, 2006. As a result, WNWO joined Marquette's WLUC-TV, Saginaw's WEYI-TV and Northern Michigan's WPBN & WTOM as part of Barrington's family of stations serving Michigan and northwestern Ohio. Also in 2006, WNWO-TV began airing The Tube Music Network on its DT2 digital subchannel. This would end on October 1, 2007, when The Tube closed up. Its slot is now taken up by the Retro Television Network.

On August 10, 2007, WNWO launched the first 7pm newscast in the Toledo area. This 7pm newscast allows busy working people to watch news "when they need it," not where it's traditionally been broadcast.

[edit] Digital TV

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Digital channels

The station's digital signal remained at channel 49 following the digital transition on June 12, 2009. However, it can be tuned to channel 24 using PSIP to match previous analog channel and station branding.

[edit] NBC 24 News Today

• Jennifer Taylor
• Meteorologist Michael Schlesinger
• Stony Vasco Traffic (NBC 24 Today only)

[edit] NBC 24 News @ 6, 7, 7:30 and 11

• David Custer
• Arielle Berlin
• Laura Rice
• Chief Meteorologist Norm Van Ness
• Sports: Eric Haubert

[edit] NBC 24 News Weekends

• Arielle Berlin
• Meteorologist Kelly Heidbreder
• Sports: Ryan Fowler

[edit] Past News Personalities

• Geneen Anderson (WPLG)
• Angela Atalla (WTSP)
• Gretchen Auker
• Jon Antalek
• Jim Blue (WFFT)
• Tom Bosco (WSYX)
• Kristi Branam (WYTV)
• Paula Bridges (WPSD)
• Dave Carlson (WTOL)
• Jon Clark
• Kylie Conway (WKEF)
• Mike Costa
• Jodine Costanzo (WPXI)
• Dan DeCrow (ONN, WBNS)
• Cheryl Deutsch
• Denise Douglas (WJAC)
• Stephanie Dutchess
• Don Edwards (Deceased)
• Greg Entress
• Kelly Faegre
• Kim Gantz
• Jenny Goldberg
• Lissa Guyton (WTVG)
• Lou Hebert
• Dave Hecht (active duty/US Navy)
• Doug High (WPTD)
• Kari Howard (WNDU)
• Karla Hult (KARE)
• Paula Johnson (WKEF/WRGT-TV)
• Brian Kahle
• Christian Kafton (KNTV)
• Paul Kiska (WEWS)
• Anna Kooiman (WCCB)
• Matt Lockwood
• Dan Lovett
• Kevin Milliken (WSPD Radio)
• Melissa McCrady (WTMJ)
• Brian McIntyre (ONN)
• Andrea Mock (WLTX)
• Nora Murray
• Rob North
• John Ostkovich (KYW)
• Rob Packard
• Allison Payne (WGN-TV)
• Darsha Philips (KTXL)
• Theresa Pollick (ODOT)
• Victoria Preston
• John Quaintance (WDHO-TV 1974-1975)
• Christa Quinn (WSPG)
• Paul Rae (Deceased)
• Tino Ramos (WBNS)
• Stephanie Roberts (WFTS)
• Celso Rodriquez
• Mark Schirripa (WSBT Radio)
• Richard Sharp (KCRA)
• Simon Shaykhet (WJBK)
• Bill Siler
• Paul W. Smith (WJR)
• Bill Spencer (WTVG)
• Jennifer Stacy (WINK)
• Paul Stelzer (WCMH)
• Shenikwa Stratford
• Jim Tichy (retired)
• Matt Trezza
• DeWayne Walker
• Roger Webber
• Megan West (Golf Channel)
• Holly Wood
• Bill Yeager(Westwood One)

[edit] Tower

[edit] Slogans

• "It's Happening on TV-24" (1977)
• "We're There For You" (1977)
• "Bringing it Home to You" (1978)
• "TV-24's The Place!" (1979)
• "Toledo Direct to You" (1980)
• "First in Toledo" (1981)
• "TV-24 Turns You On" (1982)
• "You Should See Us Now" (1983)
• "TV-24 is Yours" (1985)
• "The Station You Turn To" (1988)
• "Toledo's Very Own" (1991)
• "News You Can Always Turn To" (1993)
• "Building a Better Station for You" (1996)
• "Your News Station" (1997)
• "Your Most Local News Station" (1999)
• "Toledo's Weather Station" (2003)
• "Fair, Accurate, Honest" (2006)

[edit] External links

• WNWO website
• WNWO entry on Michiguide.com
• Google archive of Genovese v. Television of Toledo, Inc., as filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, No. 395CV01423 DJS
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNWO-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WNWO-TV